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Styles
Darren Styles, born Darren James Mew (1975) is a British Hardcore/song writer and occasional singer who achieved success touring at events such as Hardcore Heaven and Hardcore Paradise. He forms half of the hardcore duo Breeze & Styles. Styles has worked and featured on many Hardcore albums throughout his career as a DJ. His first solo album, Skydivin, peaked at #4 in the UK charts. Personal life Darren was encouraged to play music from an early age by his father, a blues fan, and always had a passion for music. He spent many nights mastering his ability on the keyboard and developing his own style, inspired by dance music. In February 1992, in Clacton-On-Sea, Essex, Darren had his first "hands on" experience of the underground rave scene in "Oscar's Nightclub" on Clacton Pier. This event lead to Darren wanting to be a part of the dance music community.... Career Evolution Darren's first records were in a group called "The Evolution" (with James Broomfield and Paul Hughes). The following year, Paul Hobbs joined the group, which became "DJ Force & The Evolution" and the four signed for hardcore record label, 'Kniteforce'. Many of their tracks were played by Carl Cox. The group also produced tracks using the alias "A Sense of Summer" for another hardcore label, 'Universal'. Force and Styles In 1995, together with Paul Hobbs (aka DJ Force), he set up his own label, 'UK Dance', and they began producing using the name "Force & Styles", so they could quickly release more material and have complete artistic license over their records. Force & Styles released many 12" records on UK Dance and by 1996 their popularity had grew so that they were DJ'ing every weekend up and down the UK, as well as touring Australia, North America and Ibiza on a regular basis. The two also held residencies at 'Slammin Vinyl', 'Helter Skelter', and 'United Dance', to name just a few. By 1997 they had produced some of the biggest hardcore tracks of the time, such as their two singles "Heart of Gold" and "Paradise & Dreams", as well as "Pretty Green Eyes", "Pacific Sun", and "Field of Dreams" and many of which went on to be covered by commercial dance artists. Force & Styles picked up a lot of award at this time and they were the first ever hardcore DJ's to do a guest mix for Pete Tong's 'Essential Mix' radio show on BBC Radio 1. In this period Force & Styles released three albums: their first being "All Over The UK" which was released in 1996; "Simply Electric", from 1998, was the second, containing mainly tracks by Force & The Evolution; and their greatest hits album, "Heart of Gold" was released in 2000. Styles and Breeze Following Force & Styles, Darren began adopting a more trance influenced sound and also started producing with Mark Breeze using the name of "Styles & Breeze". Many of these productions were released on the dance label 'Nukleuz', including the single "Let Me Fly" released as 'Infextious'. Styles & Breeze also started making hardcore based tracks which were released as 12" records for Hixxy's label 'Raver Baby'. Styles & Breeze have also released two top 20 singles "You're Shining" and "Heatbeatz" featuring Karen Danzig on the major dance label All Around The World. Solo Darren's first solo record was "Feelin' Fine" which was released as "Unique" in 1998. His solo career as Darren Styles started in 2002 after releasing a record for 'Nukleuz' and other labels. Darren has also released many records on Raver Baby and his first solo single was "Save Me" released on All Around The World. Since "Save Me", Darren has released singles collaborating with other artists, i.e. "Sure Feels Good" and "Discolights" with Ultrabeat and "Right By Your Side" with N-Force. In 2008, Darren released Skydivin'. The album was a collection of old and new hardcore and commercial songs by Darren Styles. This album reached #4 in the UK, it reached # 41 in Ireland and has since been certified Gold in the UK. The rumoured follow up single from his latest single "Discolights" with Ultrabeat is the title track from his album "Skydivin'". Discography Albums * 1996 All Over The UK * 1998 Simply Electric * 2000 Heart of Gold * 2008 Skydivin' Singles DJ Force and Evolution * 1993 Fall Down On Me * 1993 Poltergeist * 1993 Twelve Midnight DJ Force and The Evolution * 1994 High On Life * 1994 Perfect Dreams * 1995 Show Me Heaven * 1995 Simply Electric * 1996 Fall Down On Me * 1998 High On Life (Force and Styles Remix) * 1998 Raining Smiles * 1998 Twelve Midnight (Bang Remix) * 1999 Perfect Dreams * 2006 Fall Down On Me A Sense Of Summer * 1995 Around The World * 1995 On Top Force and Styles * 1995 All Over * 1995 Harmony * 1996 Down 2 Love * 1996 Fun Fair * 1996 Heart Of Gold featuring Jenna * 1996 Shining Down featuring Jenna * 1996 Wonderland featuring Jenna * 1996 Your Love (Get Down) * 1997 Field Of Dreams * 1997 Follow Me * 1997 Pacific Sun featuring MC Junior * 1997 Paradise And Dreams featuring Junior * 1997 Pretty Green Eyes featuring Junior * 1997 Simply Electric * 1997 United In Dance * 1998 Cutting Deep featuring Junior * 1998 Heart Of Gold featuring Kelly Llorenna (#55 UK) * 2001 Field Of Dreams featuring Jenna * 2001 Look At Me Now featuring Junior * 2001 Make Believe featuring Lisa Abbott * 2001 Pretty Green Eyes featuring Junior Unique * 1998 Feelin' Fine * 1998 Higher Ground Breeze and Styles * 2002 Future Set * 2002 You're Shining * 2003 The Beat Kicks / 2 The Dancefloor * 2004 Heart Beats / Electric Futureworld * 2002 Chemical Love Darren Styles * 2002 Black Magic * 2002 Sirens * 2004 Back 2 The Old School * 2005 Cutting Deep * 2006 Darren Styles EP * 2006 Getting Better * 2006 Save Me * 2006 Jealous * 2006 SkyDivin * 2007 Feel Love * 2007 Flashlight * 2007 Girlfriend * 2007 Feel Love * 2008 Come Running Styles * 2002 Over And Over Styles and Breeze * 2002 All I Want / Don't Want You * 2002 Black Magic, Bad Magic / Oxygen * 2002 Overdrive / Energise * 2003 Home (At Last) / Rainbow * 2003 Sonic / Total XTC * 2004 Heartbeatz * 2004 You're Shining * 2005 Heartbeats (Remixes) * 2005 You're My Angel * 2006 I Will Be * 2006 Slide Away * Unreleased Come With Me Darren Styles and Mark Breeze presents Infexious * 2003 Let Me Fly Infextious * 2003 Let Me Fly Hixxy and Styles * 2005 Rushins / The Theme * 2006 Hixxy and Styles EP Ultrabeat vs Darren Styles * 2007 Sure Feels Good UK #52 * 2008 "DiscoLights" UK Darren Styles & N-Force * 2008 Right By Your Side External Links * Official Website * Darren Styles MySpace * Discoqs page